


Rewritten Wrong

by Sohotthateveryonedied



Category: Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Brother Feels, Brotherly Angst, DC fucked up the timeline and poor Tim is suffering for it, Dick Grayson is Ric Grayson, Gen, He's technically not even in the fic but I hate him, Honestly fuck Ric, Hurt No Comfort, Introspection, Reality Bending, The world is messed up and Tim is one of the only people who knows it, Tim just wants his big brother back, Which really sucks, universe fuckery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-04-03 17:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21498196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sohotthateveryonedied/pseuds/Sohotthateveryonedied
Summary: Tim can’t get it out of his head. All of the moments, good and bad. The moments that once existed—were once Tim’s life. Suddenly deleted like an unsaved computer file and replaced with a flawed copy.Back then, Dick—theotherDick—had been important. So important that Tim feels ashamed for having forgotten before. He was Tim’s rock at times, his shoulder to cry on, hisbrother.And they call themselves brothers in this new world they’re living in, but it’s different now. Tastes like plastic on Tim’s tongue.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Comments: 19
Kudos: 153





	Rewritten Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> @DC execute Ric Grayson and bring Dick back you cowards. 
> 
> This idea has been in my head for a _super_ long time, mainly because I was (am) confused about all the differences between the Pre-52 universe and what's going on now in Rebirth. What from the original timeline is still canon? Is any of it? What happened to the important relationships between characters, like Tim and Dana and—more importantly—Tim and Dick? Because they used to be so much closer before the reboot, and now it's like DC stuck Dick with Damian and Tim with Jason, and just left it at that. And I know that Tim and Dick are still brothers and treat each other as such in the new universe, but it's not the same and I wanted to write about how that must feel for Tim. To know that this strong, _important_ bond he had with his big brother—his first sibling and one of the only people he knew he could always count on no matter what happened—has been stripped down to barely more than affectionate coworkers? Idk I just found it interesting and sad and yeah. 
> 
> Then I added in the Ric stuff too because I'm a jerk and couldn't resist making this even sadder. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Tim’s been here for over an hour. Three empty coffee mugs sit before him, and he’s on his second helping of complimentary bread and salt packets. Yep. That’s how utterly done he is right now. Carbs _and _sodium.   
  
The waitress looks more exhausted than Tim feels. “Are you going to order something or not?”   
  
“He’ll be here soon,” Tim insists. “Ten more minutes.”   
  
The waitress rolls her eyes and tucks her pen back behind her ear. She moves on to the next table—one with _actual_ customers—and Tim can’t imagine what an image he must make right now: a lonely kid sitting alone, holding out hope for someone who’s not coming.   
  
Pathetic.   
  
He checks his phone for the twentieth time, gut churning with a mixture of disappointment and a small puddle of lingering hope. Nothing. _Again. __  
__  
_He would have thought meeting one’s own brother at a diner should be a fairly simple task, but then again, is anything easy these days?   
  
Sighing, Tim lets his phone fall to the table. Temple Run and straw wrapper snakes will only get one so far in terms of time-wasting, and Tim has just about reached his limit. In all fairness, Tim has never been a particularly patient person, and spending a year locked away in an other-dimensional prison cell has made the act of waiting all but unbearable.   
  
_(“Hold on tight, Tim. As tight as you can to every moment.”) _  
  
It’s been...difficult. Coming back, trying to slot himself back into normality after all the things he’s seen. After knowing what he knows now. How is he supposed to enjoy the present when the past and future are locked in an eternal tug-of-war in his head?   
  
It feels like the more Tim dwells on _that _past—the one that never happened yet did—the less of a grasp he has on his new memories.   
  
Are his parents alive or dead? Did Dick become Batman when Bruce died, or was that for something else? Does Ives’ phone number end in a seven or a five? Are he and Ives even _friends _in this universe? It’s all one big jumble.   
  
Shuffling through his old memories and his new, fake ones is like trying to mesh two slides together in a view-master. Not quite syncing up, no matter how hard you try.   
  
And Tim can’t help _comparing _his two lives—all the little details that have been shifted a bit to the left or turned completely inside-out. The things that have suddenly been blinked out of existence, as if they never happened. But they _did _happen, and now Tim doesn’t know what’s real anymore.   
  
Stephanie. She had a baby in the other timeline. Did whatever galactic glitch that messed everything up cost that child her existence? What about Dana? Is she alive? Does she have her own life and family somewhere, happily mothering a child who isn’t Tim?   
  
And then there’s Dick.   
  
Tim has kept or regained nearly every relationship he had in the other timeline—some even better than they were before. Except for Dick.   
  
_(“You’re my brother, Dick. You’ll always be there for me.”)_  
  
Tim can’t get it out of his head. All of the moments, good and bad. The moments that once existed—were once Tim’s _life. _Suddenly deleted like an unsaved computer file and replaced with a flawed copy.   
  
Back then, Dick—the _other _Dick—had been important. So important that Tim feels ashamed for having forgotten before. He was Tim’s rock at times, his shoulder to cry on, his _brother. __  
__  
_And they call themselves brothers in this new world they’re living in, but it’s different now. Tastes like plastic on Tim’s tongue.   
  
_(“Tim, pick up...Please, kiddo, pick up...I know you can hear me, Tim…”)_  
  
Erased now are the memories in everyone’s heads but Tim’s. Is that a blessing, or some horrible curse? Is he the key to repairing reality’s fractures, or is he simply destined to live forever with the burden of this knowledge? Should he just forget it all—give up on his useless quest for the truth and accept that what’s gone is gone forever?   
  
The Dick Grayson from this universe is different. Not in the real, crucial ways—the ones that matter. He’s still the same guy who would give his life in a heartbeat if it meant saving someone he loved. The guy who is so undeniably _good _that he’s a beacon of hope for so many.   
  
But is Tim part of that many? Or did that get erased too?   
  
_(“I let you make the choice for yourself...because I knew you’d make the right one.”)__  
_  
Back when the past was reality, Tim looked up to Dick like he was some shining, golden figure. Someone so idyllic and untouchable that he had it in him to be strong when Tim couldn’t.   
  
Dick was the one person whom—out of everyone on the planet—Tim knew he could trust. No matter what, he could _always _count on Dick to pick up the pieces when Tim was too broken to breathe.   
  
_(“Well, I’m tired of analyzing everything to death as everyone I love dies around me.”)__  
_  
He’s just...he’s tired. Tim is so_ tired_ of trying to puzzle everything together, make sense of what is and isn’t real anymore. He wants everything to magically be better again, as impossible as he knows it is. He wants to be able to drive to Blüdhaven and knock on the door of Dick’s apartment, knowing that he’ll be accepted in a heartbeat.   
  
Why did the universe take that security away from him? During the times when Tim couldn’t trust his dad, Bruce, his friends, his own damn _mind, _he always had Dick Grayson. He always had a big brother to shield him from the storm.   
  
_(“Tim, will you just _talk_ to me? I want to help.”)_  
  
If Tim showed up unannounced at Dick’s place now, he’d be met with confusion at best and rejection at worst. Because the fact is, that closeness? That bond they used to share? It’s muted now, and Tim doesn’t know what to do about that. If there’s even anything _to _do.   
  
Not that Dick doesn’t care. He does. Dick Grayson is a lovable big lug no matter the timeline. But there’s...there’s something. Something in the way. Maybe it’s the absence of history. Maybe it’s the change in the lineup.   
  
_(“Good call, _Marcia.”_ “I know, _Cindy.”_)_  
  
Dick’s favorite brother has always been Damian in this universe, that much is clear. And Tim isn’t jealous. He knows that the relationship Dick and Damian have is special, and it’s made them both better. Just like how Tim and Jason are closer now than they used to be, and he should be grateful for that.   
  
But Tim remembers the true past.   
  
He remembers playing tag in stairwells and surfing on trains and turning to Dick for advice whenever life pummeled him into goop. He remembers Dick trying to repent for all the ways he failed Jason by being the best brother a lonely kid like Tim could ask for.   
  
_(“Quit it.” “Shh.” “Quit it!” “Shh.”)_  
  
But this Dick is different. He’s the same, but he’s different. He’s Tim’s brother, but at the same time he’s a stranger. When is the last time they spent time together for a reason that didn’t pertain to their nightlife? Have they ever? Tim can’t recall.   
  
Because the _person _is different. And it’s not Dick’s fault—Tim knows it’s not. How can he blame his brother for not being the person Tim remembers from a timeline that no longer exists? It’s not fair to resent him for reality’s fuckery.   
  
And yet.   
  
Every time Tim looks at him now, he can’t help being struck by the strong sense of _wrongness. _This man isn’t his brother—not the one he knows. Not the man he knew he could trust to be at his side no matter what came their way. The one who would answer the phone when it was three in the morning and Tim needed his big brother’s voice to keep him afloat.   
  
_(“Hey, pal. It’s totally cool...there’s plenty of time for me to sleep. Talk to me…”)_  
  
And he knows Dick cares. Of course he cares; it’d be impossible for him not to. But does he feel it too? Does he know there’s something off kilter with their relationship; cracks that have been sealed wrong? Does he miss his little brother as much as Tim misses him?   
  
All of these questions are hypothetical, of course. Tim already knows the answer, as tragic as it is. If Dick didn’t remember before, there’s no _way _he will now. Because the universe hates Tim and anyone associated with him. Because Tim is cursed with knowledge, and Dick is—  
  
Tim’s phone chimes. An incoming text.   
  
_Sorry dude, totally forgot about that thing today, _it reads._ I’ll catch you next week or smth, cool? _  
  
And Tim laughs. It’s a hollow noise—empty and rattling in his chest, yet heavy as though his lungs have been filled with sandbags. He should have seen this coming. No matter how hard he hopes and wishes and dwells __obsessively on the past, the present cannot be ignored in its sovereignty.   
  
Because now?   
  
Now Dick Grayson is gone, and Ric couldn’t care less about Tim Drake.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you leave a comment I'll go to sleep right now and stop refusing to let my poor brain rest! This is a limited time offer!
> 
> [Feel free to mosey on down to my Tumblr!](http://sohotthateveryonedied.tumblr.com/)
> 
> (Quote sources, in order: 
> 
> \- Detective Comics #968  
\- Red Robin #12  
\- Identity Crisis #6  
\- Nightwing #139  
\- Also Nightwing #139  
\- Red Robin #4  
\- Red Robin #14  
\- Gotham Knight #8  
\- Robin #156)


End file.
